Published: October 28, 2008

A View to a Thrill: 'Buff Bond' Offers More Than a Quantum of Solace

Share This Story

But film studies expert says 'revisionist Bond' differs from Fleming's creation in attitude to killing

A film studies Professor at the University of Leicester, who has authored a book on the history of Bond films, claims the 'revisionist Bond' that Daniel Craig portrays is more sexually charged than any previous portrayal of the fictional agent.

Daniel Craig's physical attributes will provide more than a Quantum of Solace to female Bond fans as the franchise capitalises on the sex appeal of the spy in a way it has never done before.

Professor James Chapman, of the Department of History of Art and Film, said that in Casino Royale Bond's body is presented as much as an erotic object as the women's bodies with gratuitous shots of Craig in his swimming trunks, which suggests that the producers are thinking about their female viewers as well as the male audience.

He said: "Fleming's Bond is not particularly presented as a sexual object: the emphasis in the books is very much on male desire rather than female desire, with the sole exception of The Spy Who Loved Me, in which Fleming experimented with writing from the perspective of a woman who encounters James Bond."

In an article for the University's on-line magazine published on Tuesday October 28 Professor Chapman said Quantum of Solace which releases at the end of this month would continue to serve up a 'revisionist Bond.'

He said: "Casino Royale was a revisionist Bond movie in the sense that it reinvented the franchise, showing Bond's first mission and his assignment of Double-O status, as if the events of the previous twenty films had not taken place.

"Quantum of Solace takes up where Casino ended, so in that sense it's still offering us this revisionist Bond. And this is one reason where there's still no Miss Moneypenny or Q Branch scenes.

"Casino was promoted as a back-to-basics Bond after the CGI excesses of Die Another Day: a plausible conspiracy - plausible by Bond movie standards that is - and no ice palaces or invisible cars. Quantum looks to continue that with some hard-edged action sequences, Bond getting bloodied and bruised.

"The promotional discourse describes it as "gritty and realistic". Now, it's not gritty and realistic in the way that, say, a Ken Loach film is gritty and realistic, but rather in the sense that the action sequences are done as far as possible for real (not too much CGI) and that there's an attempt to explore the psychological make-up of the characters."

Professor Chapman added that Daniel Craig's portrayal of Bond was, in some respects, closer to Fleming's character than any of the other actors' portrayals, but there were also significant differences.

"Craig is obviously a lot more physical, even brutish, than previous Bond actors. He plays Bond as a "blunt instrument": he's not yet the polished article, he's still rough around the edges. Craig's Bond doesn't do the one-liners that others have done. In that respect -but that respect only - he's closer to the Bond of the books, who doesn't crack jokes and is a rather humourless character. But in other respects Craig's Bond is very unlike Fleming's Bond. Fleming's Bond did not enjoy killing; Craig's Bond seems almost to relish it."

Professor Chapman, whose book Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, had a second edition this year, added: "Quantum of Solace looks to have used the title of an Ian Fleming short story but nothing else. In the story - an after-dinner anecdote told to Bond by the Governor of Jamaica - the phrase refers to someone who has found some contentment after a difficult life. This is a character whom Bond had met over dinner and found rather dull, until he heard her story from the Governor. It seems that in the film the phrase refers to Bond himself. The narrative takes place immediately following the events of the previous film, Casino Royale, in which Bond's lover Vesper Lynd turned out to be a double agent and was killed. The trailer includes the villain referring to Bond as "damaged goods", so we can assume that he is carrying forward some grief and psychological trauma from Casino Royale."

Professor Chapman said he expected the film to set within a frame of reference that gave it significance to audiences: "Casino Royale can be located in the context of the "War on Terror" - the villain is described as "private banker to the world's terrorists" - and I expect that theme will be developed in Quantum of Solace. Bond films usually have a certain degree of topicality. The conspiracy threatens the water supply - more plausible these days than death rays in satellites!"

Professor Chapman's book Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films is published by I.B. Tauris, London, at £15.95. ISBN 978 1 84511 515 9

You can read more about the book here:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2008/08/nparticle.2008-08-11.9947064272

you can read a fuller on-line article at http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2008/10/nparticle.2008-10-27.5533504597/